Enhancing the nutritional quality and digestibility of citronella waste () for ruminant feed through ammoniation and fermentation techniques.

Background And Aim: Citronella grass () waste, produced by distilling citronella to produce essential oil, has a high potential for use as animal feed. However, the presence of high lignin content could limit its digestibility, prompting the need for treatment to improve its quality. This study aimed to improve the nutritional value and digestibility of ammoniated and fermented citronella waste (CW).

Materials And Methods: The treatments of CW included CW without treatment as a control (T0), ammoniation of CW with urea (T1), fermentation of CW with (T2), and a combination of ammoniation and fermentation (amofer) of CW (T3). This study employed a randomized block design with five replicates for each of the four treatments. If there was a significant effect (p < 0.05), a Duncan's multiple range test was performed to analyze the variance of the data.

Results: The process of ammoniation and fermentation led to a notable increase in crude protein (2%-6%) while decreasing crude fiber (2%-6%), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (5%-14%), acid detergent fiber (ADF) (5%-9%), lignin (4%-9%), and cellulose (2%-10%). The treatments enhanced the digestibility of dry matter, organic matter (OM), NH, and total volatile fatty acid by 4%-12%, 6%-19%, 0.9-10 mM, and 35-142 mM, respectively. The decrease in NDF, ADF, acid detergent lignin (ADL), and cellulose fractions was accompanied by an improvement in dry matter and OM digestibility in CW. Ammoniated-fermented (amofer) CW, followed by fermentation with and ammoniated urea treatment, significantly enhanced the nutritional content and digestibility. The decrease in NDF, ADF, ADL, and cellulose fractions led to an improvement in dry matter and OM digestibility in CW.

Conclusion: The application of amofer treatment with maximizes CW's nutritional value and digestibility, making it the most efficient preservation method. Research is needed to explore the potential use of spp. and spp. for fermenting CW as ruminant fodder.